Volodymyr Demchyshyn informed about Ukraine's coal provision

At a briefing, on December 5, at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn informed about the situation in the provision with energy coal of Ukrainian thermoelectric power stations.

Moreover, he has stressed that the situation is tense, because there is a problem with the provision of anthracite coal producing on the occupied territory of Donbas. The Minister has said that there are 2 mln tones of coal produced at the storage facilities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but we are unable to reach them.

The Minister has stated that on the border with Russia there are 500 freight cars with coal, for which Ukraine had paid and that could enter into the production process, however, its delivery to power plants is being hampered.

Volodymyr Demchyshyn has also informed about current coal reserves. "As of today, coal reserves at the storage facilities of power plants amount about 1.4 million tons of coal, out of which 1 million of gas group and over 250 thousand tons of anthracite coal. The main difficulty is that some stations have minimum reserves. That’s the reason why stations are unable to produce capacity," the Minister noted. According to him, the worst situation is at the Prydniprovska, Kryvorizhska and Zmiyivska TPSs, however, we are providing an uninterrupted coal supply. He has explained that the stations can operate on minimum reserves, while not producing the desired capacity.

Volodymyr Demchyshyn has also reported that on December 4 enterprises held a voluntary limitation of the use of electricity, also related work is being carried out with those who exceed the consumption limit.

As for the supply of electricity to Crimea, the Minister said that Crimea is being supplied with 400MWs, payment for which is made in a timely manner and at a market price. The Ministry set limits to Crimea as well as to all regions of Ukraine.

The Minister of Energy and Coal Industry informed that the third reactor unit at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant would start to work after repair today.